DISCLAIMER: Percy Jackson is not mine...
Just so you know, shadow travel is not on my list of fun things…
Anyways, I had my eyes closed for what seemed like a long time when Malakai whispered, "You can open your eyes. We're all safe."
I opened them and looked around. We were setting in the middle of a field. In the distance, you could see a mountain, rounded with erosion. In the sunlight, it looked red. I saw a kangaroo hoping a little ways a away.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"You're in Australia!" the girl named Neely said.
"Okay…" I said.
"Aeron, I guess since you wanted to come here, then another time piece must be here." Annabeth said. "Right?"
"Uh… yeah. In that mountain." he pointed towards the red mountain.
"Oh! That's Mt. Augustus isn't it?" Jacie asked. "The locals call it Burringurrah."
"Yeah, how did you know?" Annabeth asked.
"I'm kind of obsessed with the Aboriginal people. I've just always loved studying their culture. And I've always wanted to come here! I read that there are secret burial chambers here that are haunted!" Jacie finished.
"H- Haunted?" Lyla asked.
"Yeah! Cool huh?" Jacie said. Lyla just shook her head.
"You don't say." Annabeth said. "So anyways, this is Cornelia Woodsman, or as she likes to be called: Neely, the goddess of darkness."
"You're a goddess?" I asked. No one else seemed surprised.
"Yeah!" Neely giggled. "Last year, my mom claimed me after my dad claimed me, so now I'm a goddess!" She looked at me and saw my confused expression. "My dad Erebus was the god of darkness until he started fading so my mom Artemis had a child with him, making me a goddess. I had to take his place!" she explained.
"That's cool!" I told her.
"Yeah, it's totally awesome!" she said.
"How did you know we needed help?" Lyla asked.
"Oh, Chiron asked me to help you if you found yourself in a sticky situation!" Neely told us.
"A SICKY SITUATION! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! WE NEED TO FIND THE NEXT TIME PIECE!" Malakai yelled. We all turned and looked at him. He told us (completely unphased), "The time piece is in the mountain. We need to hurry and get it so we can collect the other time pieces! We've only got seven days to get them all!"
"Calm down!" Neely said. "We can't go into the mountains until dark anyways, silly!"
"What?" We all looked at her.
"There's been some sort of enchantment placed upon it. That's the reason I couldn't get any closer to the mountain in the first place. I don't think we can go in until dark." Neely told us.
"Well I'm going to go check." Malakai mumbled. He walked towards the mountain.
"What's gotten into him?" Travis asked.
"I think he's just stressed about the whole ordeal." Lyla said.
"Yeah, saving the world is taking its toll." Aaron said. "I think I'm going to take a nap." He laid down and fell asleep instantly.
"That's a son of Hypnos for you!" Jacie said, gazing at Aaron. I'm kinda sleepy too." She laid down and closed her eyes.
Annabeth yawned. "I think Aaron is emitting sleep rays." she laid down and slept too.
Lyla, Travis, and Aeron fell asleep shortly there after. It was just me and Neely since Malakai was still gone.
"I've got to get back to Olympus. It was nice to meet you, Vannie!" Neely stood up. "Good luck… with everything!" And with that, she erupted into a cloud of black smoke.
I heard footsteps coming. Malakai appeared again. He sat down and put his head in his hands.
"Uh… Malakai? Are you okay?" I asked.
He looked up at me. His eyes were rimmed with red. He sighed and said, "I don't think they understand the nature of this quest. I mean, if we don't succeed, the world is going to end! And even worse, Kronos will be able to come back at his own leisure and rule the world while we're stuck in time, if we're alive after the storms…"
I went over and sat by him. "Oh Kai Kai." Where did that name come from? Oh well, stranger things have happened.
Malakai straightened up and looked at me when I called him that. "Lina, how are we going to stop this? I just don't think we can…"
I put my arm around him and said (not exactly knowing what my word meant), "We'll stop this. You'll see…"
He smiled. "Thanks. You always did know what to say…" He yawned and fell asleep. I felt my eyes closing as I slipped into unconsciousness.
Two small kids were running around, laughing and playing. The figure of a woman came up and said, 'Hush, or else he'll hear you.' Both children closed their mouths. A tear escaped from the eye of the little boy. The girl said something and the boy smiled.
I woke up, almost like a spell had been lifted from me. Everyone else around me was waking up, too.
"Jeez Aaron. Next time, control your sleep waves!" Annabeth mumbled.
"Sorry." Aaron said, yawning.
"I think we got up at just the right time!" Jacie said. The sun was just sinking below the horizon. Once it was gone, a wave of cold seemed to wash over us.
"Let's go get another time piece!" Travis said.
"Okay, but we need to be very careful. Since we had to wait for night fall, there's no telling what's in store for us." Annabeth said.
We walked to the mountain and crossed the invisible boundary line. "This way," Aeron said. We followed him into a tunnel. There was door at the end. It opened once we spilt our blood. Aeron stayed outside again. The room we walked into was like the one in Egypt, only there was just one painting in the wall, a ring with a moon stone.
"Okay, who wants to open the door this time?" Annabeth asked.
Thank you all for reading. I'm afraid that if I don't get more reviews, then I'm not going to continue writing this story... I want to have at least forty reviews.
